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02/02/2016 03:15 PMIn an effort to reduce its financial losses, the Town of Guilford plans to hire a management company to oversee the Guilford Lakes Golf Course. Many locals have expressed concern over the decision to bring in a private company, however, fearing it may change the course—one of the few municipal courses left in the region—for the worse.
The course, as it is now, was officially opened in 1999. As a municipal course, it is open to the public and anyone can play for a fee. Approximately 13,300 players used the course last year. The nine-hole course is under the direction of the Guilford Lakes Golf Course Commission and First Selectman Joe Mazza, Jr., said that is not going to change.
“We are not looking to privatize it,” he said. “What we are looking to do is to have a management company run and manage the course for the town. They will be in charge of maintaining and running it, but the town will still own the course and it will still be under the direction of the golf course commission.”
Mazza said other towns have turned their courses over to management companies and Guilford has considered this option carefully.
“We are looking for someone to take the financial risk,” he said. “That is the whole idea.”
Financial troubles are the primary driver for this change, according to Joe Dunsmore, an original member of the Guilford Lakes Gold Course Commission. Dunsmore said the town has been losing anywhere from $60,000 to $70,000 on the course annually.
“The course was a profit [maker] until 2008,” he said. “It made money, paid back the debt [incurred during its development], and then in 2008 we experienced a resection and one of the hardest things hit is discretionary income. Golf has been that way, so every year we have lost money since then.”
Dunsmore said he has seen many private clubs close down, but that the Guilford commission has done everything it could to make the course profitable.
A volunteer board currently provides oversight for the course. With the town and board running out of options, “we said, ‘Well, let’s see if we can find a management company that can do this,’” Dunsmore said “That is the reason we have gone looking.”
Dunsmore and town legal counsel then began working on creating an Request for Qualifications and eventually went out to bid in late December 2015.
“We are looking for what we call a turnkey,” he said. “What I mean by that is we give them the keys to the building and they have to take care of everything. They are responsible for maintaining the needs of the golf course from water to electric.”
Dunsmore emphasized that a management company will not change the way the public experiences the golf course.
“I have gotten the calls with people asking, ‘Is this becoming like New Haven or Madison Country Club?’” he said. “This is a municipal golf course, it is going to be run that way. This will still be open to the public. This will not be privatized.”
Two bids came back in by January 22 from Billy Casper Golf and Commonwealth Golf Group. Dunmore said the commission met with the candidates and will interview them again before presenting their decision to the Board of Selectmen.
“I think we will probably present this to the Board of Selectmen in the first meeting of March,” he said. “There will be no discussion of financials in the meeting and the only time financials will be known is once the contract is signed by the first selectman.”
Dunmore said the private handling of the finances is town policy, but it still has some residents upset, including longtime Guilford resident Herbert Burstein, who said he is displeased with how the town is handling the issue.
“Both the lack of publicity attending possible privatization and the process the town has chosen to employ with no public awareness of operating terms and pricing information prior to a contract, should be of concern to community at large—it sets a terrible example for the town,” he said.
Allen Jacobs, a former member of the commission, also expressed doubts over the use of a management company.
“I think that they feel that a private entity could turn a profit, but quite frankly I don’t see how because they are in it to make money and looking at the budget. Where does the profit come in?” he asked.
Jacobs also said he is concerned that a manager might not maintain the high quality of the course.
“My fear would be that a manager is not going to keep the course in the condition that it is right now,” he said.
Mazza said that his priority is to ensure the course is well maintained under the private management company.
“We are insisting that whomever is awarded the bid must maintain the quality of the course as it is now because it is in excellent condition,” he said. “If we feel that the quality of the course is deteriorating, it is going to be in the contract that we will have the right to pull the contract before the termination date because we don’t want it to slip.”